This invention relates to the electrical connector art, and more particularly to an electrical connector assembly and method of making the same.
In the past, a one-piece insulator has been provided with a cavity having a shoulder at each end formed by an aluminium bushing located on a mold core pin. The bushing is removed by etching in an acid bath. A clip is then snapped in place between the shoulders. The clip may be of the type to retain a contact or otherwise, or of a type similar to or the same as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,158,424. However, this assembly is expensive to manufacture because of the etching step and the step of inserting the clip into the cavity.
Another such assembly is conventionally made by molding the insulator in two pieces and then cementing the two pieces together with the clip in the cavity. However, this method is sometimes impractical because in some instances, the center to center spacing of the clips is minimal and very thin barriers must be molded on the front insulator so that the connector's electrical requirements can be met. These thin barriers are impractical to mold or uneconomical to add as separate parts. Also, the two molded parts plus cementing is costly.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,494,998 to Anhalt teaches a method of mounting a contact retention clip in a one-piece insulator in which a clip is slidably mounted into a bore in the insulator to abut a shoulder therein. An appropriate amount of heat and pressure is then applied to the rear of the insulator adjacent to the bore opening to deform the insulator material surrounding the opening so that a shoulder or abutment is formed in the insulator engaging the rear edge of the clip. If necessary, a suitable mandrel is slidably inserted within the bore to support the insulator material and the clip during the deforming operation. This techique has the disadvantage that it is difficult to control the deformation of the rear of an insulator containing a large number of contact bores. As a consequence, the rear surface of the insulator may be uneven resulting in unequal push out forces on the clips in the insulator.